500+ State Employees Meet New Boss

RICHMOND — A 10-year, $2 billion information technology partnership could make Virginia a role model.

The top executive of Northrop Grumman Corp. met more than 500 of his newest friends Tuesday, and if they manage to hit it off, Virginia's information superhighway should have far fewer bumps.

The meeting at a downtown Richmond hotel was to acknowledge a partnership of giants: the state of Virginia has joined forces with its largest private-sector employer in manufacturing and technology to give government bureaucracy a high-tech boost.

Northrop Grumman's Information Technology division will help provide the state with network and desktop services, e-mail, data-center consolidation and management, customer-care services, call centers and other necessary hardware.

In all, it is a 10-year, $2 billion IT partnership between the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, or VITA, and Northrop Grumman.

And it is already bearing fruit.

Several weeks ago, officials broke ground on an operations center in Chesterfield County. Another facility is set to open in Southwest Virginia in two or three months. Northrop Grumman's investment on those two projects alone is $272 million.

And as a result of the new agreement, more than 500 state employees have switched bosses. They have agreed to work for Northrop Grumman, and on Tuesday they had some face time with Ronald D. Sugar, chairman and CEO.

Sugar and other company executives fielded questions, showed videos and talked about the future. In an interview afterwards, he exuded optimism about this unique public-private partnership, and how the former state employees will view it.

"I think they're going to enjoy the ride," he said.

The company has about 32,000 employees in Virginia, roughly 19,000 at its Newport News shipyard. But although defense and intelligence are at its core, Sugar said the VITA partnership was a natural transition.

After all, he said, the company knows a few things about secure computer networks and state-of-the-art technology.

"We are already in this kind of business," he said. "Taking this particular job takes us up a notch from where we were and establishes a growth opportunity for the corporation in the state and local area."

"Our contract here is infrastructure -- providing the highways and the streets, the networks, the data centers," added Hugh E. Taylor, president of Northrop Grumman IT Commercial, State and Local Group.

What will it mean for the average Virginian?

Several years down the road, they might find a more Internet-capable Old Dominion.

The upgrade might be as simple as finding a parade route after a few clicks of a mouse -- or as complex as applying for certain state benefits via the Internet.

"Anything that you would traditionally stand in line for today," Taylor said.

"Or be put on hold," Sugar added.

For a state that has struggled to revamp its traditional transportation network -- the General Assembly still hasn't agreed on a long-term funding source for roads and bridges -- its online transit system could be a model for other states, officials said.

"All eyes are on us," said Lem Stewart Jr., the chief information officer for Virginia. "There is very high interest in every step we take."

The partnership first came together under former Gov. Mark R. Warner, who announced an interim agreement last year.

Final approval, after General Assembly review, was given in April.

The company's investment in Southwest Virginia --which includes support of technology education at the University of Virginia at Wise -- is a particularly good sign, said Kevin Hall, a spokesman for Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

"Part of the attractiveness of their pitch for the business," he said, "was they were willing to extend the benefit to a region one would not think of immediately." *